Friday, October 17, 2014

The Washington Capitals wrap up their three-game home stand
on Saturday night when the face the Florida Panthers at Verizon Center. The
Caps go into the contest as one of only two teams in the Eastern Conference –
the New York Islanders being the other one – without having yet endured a loss
in regulation time (2-0-2).

Both the Capitals and the Panthers finished the 2013-2014
regular season on the outside looking in at the playoffs. For the Capitals it
was their first time missing the post-season since 2006-2007, ending a string
of six straight appearances. For the Panthers, missing the playoffs is a state
of being.Only once over the past 13
seasons have they reached the post-season, only four times in the 20 year
history of the franchise.Florida has
not won a playoff series since they won the Eastern Conference final on their
way to their only Stanley Cup final appearance, in 1996.

This year’s edition of the Panthers will likely have to deal
with another round of meager expectations.Last season’s squad ranked in the bottom three of almost every
meaningful team statistic. That is a team with entirely too many holes to fill
in one off season to manage a significant climb up the standings.And it is not even a case of the Panthers
icing a team with a lot of young prospects.They are the eighth oldest team in the league, and ten of the 19 skaters they have dressed have passed the age of 30.

As one might expect, the Panthers have stumbled out of the
gate.They played the Tampa Bay
Lightning close in the season opener, losing a 3-2 overtime decision.However, they have only one goal scored in
their last two games, a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils and a 1-0 loss to the
Ottawa Senators.They have only two
goals from forwards (Derek MacKenzie and Jonathan Huberdeau), and only three
forwards with points (Scottie Upshall being the third).As a team they are shooting 3.8 percent on
3-for-80 shooting.This is a team that
appears to have a bleak future in the short term at the very least.

Here is how the teams compare in their numbers from last
season.

1.No team in the NHL
last season had a leading goal scorer with fewer goals than Brad Boyes had for
the Panthers (21).No team had a leading
point scorer with fewer points than the 38 Nick Bjugstad had for the Panthers
last season.How bad was it?There were 26 defensemen with more points
than the Panthers’ leading scorer.

2.The Panthers were
29th in goal differential in the first period of games last season
(minus-39), 30th in goal differential in the second period of games
(minus-34).They won the third period
(plus-1). Small victories.

3.In an 82-game
season, the Panthers played in 25 games in which they lost by three or more
goals.See a pattern here?

4.The Panthers’ road
power play was past anemic, it was exsanguinated. Their 7.0 percent on the power play was
the lowest dating back more than 15 years.Since the 2004-2005 lockout only one other team finished below 10.0
percent (St. Louis – 9.2 percent in 2006-2007).

5.The strange part
of the Panthers’ 2013-2014 season is that they were not irreparably inept in
terms of possession.Their Corsi-for
percentage at 5-on-5 (50.36) ranked 15th; their Fenwick-for
percentage at 5-on-5 (49.88) ranked 18th (war-on-ice.com).

1.Going into Friday’s
games the Capitals had the second best overall goal differential per game (+2.00);
Minnesota was the only team with a better one (+4.00).

3.The Caps have
scored 16 goals through four games.Last
season they did not score their 16th goal of the season until Game
6, the last goal in a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

4.The Caps lead the
league in blocked shots going into Friday’s games (58).It wouldn’t be possible without the four
blocked shots by Alex Ovechkin.We kid,
but last year he had 22 total in 78 games.

5.Four teams have
two wins of three of more goals.The
Caps are one of them along with Minnesota, San Jose, and Los Angeles.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Florida: Aaron Ekblad

Aaron Ekblad was taken first overall in the entry draft held
last June.He is not being eased into a
role with the Panthers.The defenseman
out of Windsor, Ontario, is averaging almost 22 minutes a game over his first
three NHL contests and got almost 24 minutes of ice time in his last outing
against Ottawa.He has been on ice for
only two of the nine goals allowed by the Panthers thus far.He leads all rookie defensemen in average ice
time (it’s early; there are only ten rookie defensemen who have dressed so far
this season).There is a bright future
there, but even a bright star on a dark night can shine just so much light.

Washington: Nicklas Backstrom

By now all Caps fans know that Nicklas Backstrom goes into
this game with 499 points scored in 499 career regular season games.Only three other natives of Sweden had
careers of playing in 500 or more games, recording 500 or more points, and
averaging at least 1.00 points per game: Mats Sundin (1,349 points in 1,346
games), Peter Forsberg (885 points in 708 games), and Kent Nilsson (686 points
in 553 games).In 36 career games against Florida he is
9-32-41, including three goals and three assists last season in three games
against the Panthers.

In the end…

Let’s face it, on paper this game isn’t close.A three-goal win would seem like a
nail-biter.On paper.As Caps fans know, depressingly so, games are
not played on paper, and this team can play down to an opponent’s level with
the best of them.That said, the Caps
got through their four-game opening stretch as good or better than one might
have expected under a new coaching regime.And, they look like a team that has done it the right way, improving on
their possession numbers, holding shots down, getting balanced scoring while
the stars shine.Florida's situation is complicated by their having to play in Buffalo on Friday night, meaning a late arrival in Washington for the Saturday night game. What you see on paper
you will see on the ice.

The Washington Capitals won their first home contest of the
season on Thursday night as they rode a three-goal third period to break open a tight game and win going away, 6-2, over the previously undefeated New Jersey Devils at Verizon Center.

The scoring started in the first minute of the contest when the
Devils’ Andy Greene tried to keep a loose puck from sliding out of the
offensive zone. His attempted keep-in
was blocked by Troy Brouwer who recovered the puck and headed up the right
wing. Entering the Devils’ zone, Brouwer
fired a shot at goalie Cory Schneider, who turned the puck aside, but right into the path of Alex Ovechkin stepping into the high slot.
Ovechkin collected the puck, cut across the middle, and wristed the puck
past Schneider for his fifth goal of the season 34 seconds into the game.

That was how the score remained until Damon Severson tied it
for the Devils at the 10:15 mark of the period.
Less than a minute later, though, Chris Brown untied it. Brown fought through a check from defenseman
Eric Gelinas along the right wing boards and fired a slap shot from the far
edge of the right wing circle that flew past Schneider’s blocker to make it
2-1.

Severson tied the game a second time for the Devils at the
16:36 mark of the first period, but that would be the extent of the Devils’
scoring. In the seventh minute of the
second period the Caps took the lead for good.
Marcus Johansson started and finished the tie-breaking play. Circling out from the left wing corner in the
offensive zone, Johansson sent the puck down the boards to Brooks Laich. Johansson continued his momentum into the
middle of the ice where Laich found him with a backhand pass. From the high slot Johansson took the Laich
feed and wristed the puck past Schneider to give the Caps a 3-2 lead.

That would be the extent of the scoring in the second
period. The third period was all
Capitals. Nicklas Backstrom started it less than a minute into the period jest
by getting in the way. He started it by
digging the puck off the left wing wall where Alex Ovechkin picked it up. Ovechkin fed Troy Brouwer, who relayed the
puck to Matt Niskanen at the blue line.
Niskanen wristed the puck at the net, but on the way through it hit
Backstrom and changed direction, eluding Schneider on the glove side to give
the Caps a 4-2 lead.

Less than three minutes later, Joel Ward scored unassisted
when he picked up a loose puck at the Capitals’ blue line, skated through
center ice and fired a shot that went wide to the left of Schneider. The puck caromed loudly off the end boards
and caught Schneider napping. The puck
hit Schneider and settled into the back of the net for a 5-2 lead, ending
Schneider’s evening in favor of Scott Clemmensen.

Andre Burakovsky’s wrist shot on a power play at 8:55 beat
Clemmensen and ended the scoring for the evening, giving the Caps their final
6-2 margin.

Other stuff…

-- The six goals scored against the Devils was the most
scored by the Caps in the series between the two teams since they beat New
Jersey, 7-2, on October 9, 2010.

-- Going into the game the Devils had outscored opponents
5-0 in the first period of their first three games, allowing no goals on a
total of 30 shots. The Caps scored twice
on eight shots in the first period. The Devils scored first in each of their three games. That streak ended 34
seconds into this game on Ovechkin’s goal.

-- Last season, Alex Ovechkin had five goals in his first
four games. This season, five goals in
his first four games.

-- Brooks Orpik had two assists, his first points as a
Capital and his first multi-point game since October 28th of last
season when he had three assists in a 3-1 Pittsburgh Penguins win over the
Carolina Hurricanes. Matt Niskanen had
his first two points as a Capital, too, recording two assists. Score one for the free agency signings.

-- The six goals were scored by six different players, and
12 different players shared in the points; 15 players were plus-1.

-- The Caps recorded a power play in their third straight
game, making them 5-for-13 (38.5
percent) over those three games.

-- The Devils had 28 shots on goal. Damon Severson, our “player to ponder” in the
prognosto, had eight of them and both Devils goals.

-- Anybody have Nate Schmidt leading the Caps in even
strength ice time (15:55)? Anybody? At the other end, only Andre Burakovsky did
not record at least ten minutes of even strength ice time for the Caps (9:18).

-- The Caps (2-0-2) are now one of two teams in the Eastern
Conference not to have lost a game in regulation time. The New York Islanders (3-0-1) are the other.

-- Marcus Johansson’s goal was his first game-winner since
getting the game-winner in a 6-2 win over the New York Islanders last November
5th.

-- Mike Green might be down on the list of notables in this
game, but he had a solid line tonight… two assists, seven shot attempts (led
the team), two takeaways, and four blocked shots in 19:24 of ice time. He is second on the team in points (5) and
second in plus-minus (plus-3).

In the end…

That’s the way it’s done.
Good opponent on a roll, get on them early, don’t let them get a lot of
momentum, stand on their throats down the stretch. The Caps got balanced scoring, solid defense,
and timely saves from goalie Braden Holtby.
The Caps have now outscored opponents 15-7 over their last three games. Their 5-on-5 goals ratio is 1.57, their
special teams index of 121.1 (summing their 27.8 percent power play and 93.3
percent penalty kill) is third in the league, their 26.0 shots allowed per game
is seventh-lowest in the league, and team goaltending is working to a .923 save
percentage. It hard to argue with the
results so far, and this against some stiff opposition to start the
season. Just the set up the team needs
as they close out their home stand on Saturday against the Florida Panthers
before heading to the Canadian west next week.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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